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The row comes amid anger over executive pay at housebuilders. Jeff Fairburn, who is the head of Persimmon, picked up a £75million bonus.

Campaigners claim the bosses are profiting from taxpayers’ cash handed out via cheap loans under the Help to Buy scheme.

Clive Betts, chairman of the Commons housing committee, said: ‘It’s outrageous, just when you think they can’t do any worse they go and out do themselves.'

Mr Redfern has been paid at least £6.8million over the past two years, including £4.6million in bonuses for ‘strong trading’. Over the next four years he could receive up to £6.1million in shares from long-term incentive schemes – on top of his salary.

Shareholders will meet on Thursday to sign off the pay package. Clive Betts, chairman of the Commons housing committee, said: ‘It’s outrageous, just when you think they can’t do any worse they go and outdo themselves.

‘While young people are struggling to get on the housing ladder and taxpayers’ money is being spent on Help to Buy, the boss of one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders is walking away with a massive discount. It’s unbelievable.’

Luke Hildyard of the High Pay Centre said: ‘[This] isn’t so much a staff discount as a massive, unconditional and completely gratuitous bonus.

‘It’s poor governance – and throwing this kind of money at executives while questions are being raised regarding the role of companies like Taylor Wimpey in the housing crisis suggests a board bereft of... a sense of their responsibilities to society.’

The apartment in question is in Palace View, a nine-storey block next to Lambeth Palace. It boasts bespoke interiors, private cinema, gym and ‘beautifully landscaped courtyard garden and roof terrace’.

Taylor Wimpey said it had applied ‘the usual level of detailed scrutiny’ to the transaction and it had been reviewed by internal auditors.

Help to Buy prices up 84%

Prices of some new-builds have nearly doubled since Help to Buy was introduced in 2013.

In London, the average new home now costs £515,150, up from £280,000 in 2012. The 84 per cent increase outstrips the 53 per cent rise in the price of existing properties in the capital.

Help to Buy lets borrowers with only a 5 per cent deposit take out a loan from taxpayers worth up to 20 per cent of the value of the home – or 40 per cent in London. Daniel Pryor, of the pro-free market Adam Smith Institute, said: ‘Help to Buy just pumps up demand without any changes to supply, and there’s no way that’s going to help anyone get on the housing ladder.